For centuries, human beings have required various soft resilient supports for daily activities. For instance, pillows are widely used for supporting a person's head while asleep. Cushions are widely used to support a person's back or lumbar region while sitting. Mattresses are widely used for supporting the body of a person while asleep. Such support forms can be formed of many materials, including inner spring mattresses, stuffed resilient fabrics, resilient pliable foams such as polyurethane foam and latex foam, or inflatable articles.
In hospital environments, and in physical fitness environments, a number of devices have been developed over the years for supporting patients and exercisers in various situations. Roho Incorporated has developed and sells a number of articles which are used to support a patient in a hospital environment. The Roho air flotation system is an air-inflatable device consisting of many flexible air cells attached to a common manifold system. It provides optimum pressure distribution to facilitate healing of ulcers as well as the prevention of tissue breakdown in a convalescing patient. The device is light in weight. A specific Roho innovation is a heel pad which is specifically designed to support the heel of a patient suffering from ischemic heel ulcer. A number of variations are available, for instance a deep cushion having multiple chambers, a V-shaped cushion with multiple air cells, a back support cushion with multiple air cells, a partial ring having multiple air cells, a hollow square cushion. A problem with the simple Roho air flotation system is that the pressures in each of the flexible air cells cannot be individually adjusted. A manifold or multiple manifold option is required for multiple adjustment.
Halcyon markets a multitube air bladder system under the trade-mark AIRPEDIC.TM. beds. The multiple bladders are connected together to provide an angle support for convex areas, a flat support for horizontal use, and multiple bladders for use in a mattress configuration. The chambers are inflated to a constant pressure and the pressure in the chambers cannot be varied to any significant degree. There is no capability to inflate the individual chamber to separate pressures.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,113,875, Bennett, discloses an inflatable bolster with internal horizontal and vertical baffles in the interior. The baffles are not full and do not seal the bolster into separate compartments or chambers.
There is a strong need in various environments for various forms of an adjustable multi-compartment pneumatic support form, in which the various compartments can be inflated to desired pre-determined pressures to accommodate specific situations.